These meetings will consist of one and one-half day scientific conferences focusing on the basic science aspects of a topic relevant to rheumatic diseases. It will immediately precede the annual meeting of the ACR. The purpose is to bring increasing numbers of leading basic scientists into contact with the physicians, scientists, and arthritis health professional members of the ACR, to impart current knowledge to the members of the ACR, to facilitate transfer of technology to patient care, and to increase the numbers of basic investigators attending the annual meeting. Each year the annual meeting is located in a large city in the USA with adequate convention center capacity and hotel space to accommodate the ACR attendees - approximately 6,500 persons. In 1999, the Basic Science meeting is scheduled for November 12 and 13 in Boston. The topic is "B Lymphocytes: Basic Biology and Roles in Autoimmune Disease". Topics have not been selected for subsequent years: the leading topics under discussion include genetics of rheumatic diseases, immune tolerance, cytokine networks, gene therapy, T cell biology in autoimmunity, biology of cartilage, the role of adhesion molecules in rheumatic diseases, the role of oxygen species in tissue damage, and the inflammatory basis of atherosclerosis. Each year the committee planning the program will consist of a selected leader in a basic scientific discipline (Dr. Holers in 1999), a co-chair appointed by him/her (Dr. Cambier in 1999), the chairperson of the ACR national meeting program (Dr. Crow), the chairperson or appropriate designee of the ACR Committee on Research (Dr. White), the chair of the previous year's conference (Dr. Brenner), and the PI (Dr. Hahn) of this proposal.